When I say Britain is insidiously succumbing to internal problems, what do I mean by that, what can I point to as examples, and what can we learn from it? Surprisingly, I don't even mention Brexit.
On Britain
That one time the CIA overthrew the Australian government and there was a fascist police state in Queensland
The amazing thing is that title isn't hyperbolic.
Annihilation and the Nature of Pretentious Media
There is a specific danger of pretension, of appearing ‘smarter’ than the ideas in your media actually deliver. Annihilation, I find, is guilty of this. The danger is that when your meaning isn’t clear, when your story isn’t well delivered, the criticism doesn’t get directed at the work; It makes your audience feel like they simply weren’t smart enough to understand it, that it went above their head. I compare it to Full Metal Jacket and children's animation. The animation is actually Zootopia, but I wanted an excuse to use this as the cover image.
Hills and Silicon Valleys
If you stood in the office of the man who just paid $60 for an orb of raw water, you could watch a teenager get gunned down for wearing the wrong colours in the wrong neighbourhood.
Planting is Writing Too
Sometimes when someone asks you; “So what happens next?” and you have the clearest idea of your beginning and end points, but never the middle, you feel like a failure or like you’re in way over your head.
Quick Fixes
Here is a short article dedicated entirely to the quick fixes that will drastically improve your writing. This one’s fairly simple, it’s the kind of stuff that’s obvious in hindsight, but hard to figure out or pin down on your own.
On Character Writing
How do novelists make a strong character? The ones that feel like they exist outside the story, and outside the author's head? Talking about the rough heuristic I use to plan major and minor characters.
Let There Be Light
John Huston directed a movie in 1946 that was so subversive, so radical, that it was suppressed by the US army until 1981 Stranger still, it was a movie they had commissioned him to make for them.
The Riders
There are many common depictions of the four horseman, Death, Pestilence, Conquest and Famine. They are nearly all wrong. Especially about the horses.
Battle of Karánsebes
Australia has internet like Flint, Michigan has plumbing. My internet has unexpectedly been cut since... well, 7am Wednesday, coincidentally. This also means I haven't been able to research this week. This one's a bit short, but very sweet.
